1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, an apparatus, and a computer-readable recording medium for processing data.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a system that can execute a predefined workflow pertaining to image data of a document scanned by an image forming apparatus (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-97586). With this system, the workflow is defined, so that data can flow in a manner (style) complying with an operation (duty) of the user.
Basically, a single cycle of a workflow is completed by inputting of data, performing one or more processes on the input data, and outputting the data subjected to the one or more processes.
A task flow of a user may not be simple enough to be completed by performing a single cycle of a workflow. For example, data that has been output by a given workflow may be edited by a user. Then, the edited data may be input to the same workflow or another workflow. That is, there may be a case in which a document is processed in a manner that an entity handling the document shifts from an entity that executes a workflow inside a system (virtual space) to a user that executes the workflow outside the system (real space), and shifts again to the entity that executes the workflow inside the system after the document has been processed by the user. In this case, improvement in the efficiency of processing the document is desired.